Kingmaker - Review and Interview

Originally Posted by Ripper
That's a good point. With strategy games, there's some very accessible ones, and others that revel in taking weeks to get to grips with. Reviewers just note the difference, but they don't treat the hardcore ones as problematic.

Exactly. It's like a double standard. Maybe because reviewers or gamers haven't seen a genuine hardcore RPG in awhile, so they figure the game is either broken or they didn't know what to expect going in. For goodness sake, I had to take several hour tutorial lessons in Victoria II just to begin to play the game, let alone learn it! I think the return of the hardcore RPG needs to happen so people can get familiar again with what these RPGs can be, and were in the past (and can still be in the future).

And it will help to keep the same ruleset between games, either Pathfinder rules that were used in Kingmaker to use in the sequel, or the new D&D games that come out, we need more BG1->BG2->IWD types of experiences so players can get familiar with a real ruleset.

And while I'm ranting, for the record I feel that's where Obsidian failed. PoE->PoE2 did not use the same ruleset. And Tyranny wasn't even set in the PoE setting, which was a big missed opportunity to continue building the lore, setting and ruleset. So Owlcat to the rescue, I guess.

Originally Posted by Hastar
I enjoy turn based games more but of all the RTwP games I've played I enjoy the combat in Kingmaker the most. It's been buggy and some of the realm building is confusing and poorly implemented but the game is just fun to play. I have 45 hours played and I'm in chapter 2 still.

Class building and character creation-A

Magic items and use for gold-A

Exploration-A

Monsters and villians-A

Story-B

Bugs-D

Realm Building-C+

Played more than 50 hours, in middle of chapter 3.

My rating is slightly different to yours:

Class building and creation - A
Magic items and use for gold - A
Exploration - B
Monsters and Villains - B
Story - A
Bugs - C
Realm building - C

I haven't really encountered that many bugs and none of the game breaking bug so far but the game is rather poorly optimised I think.
Realm building is fun in some aspect but not explained well, and with the implemented quest timer, it can get quite annoying.

Originally Posted by screeg
I'm going to save even *more* time!
Because I'm not going to play it, because it's RTWP.
I don't play RPGs because I want to save time.

That's nice. Moving along.

Originally Posted by vurt
No. It would of course have been balanced very differently if it was TB.

I'm thinking TB works better for games who aren't really as large-scale as this, if you have several smaller scenarios TB is probably the way to go + of course almost no trash mobs etc.

I don't know how you guys defined "trash mobs" but how are you going to implement troll invasion without waves of trolls? Especially if you fail to act on it via kingdom system in Kingmaker?

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I don't know how you guys defined "trash mobs" but how are you going to implement troll invasion without waves of trolls? Especially if you fail to act on it via kingdom system in Kingmaker?

Any mob which is _very_ easy to kill, not something likely to kill you would be a "trash mob", at least how i define it. It's possibly one of the reasons why they did not want to make it TB (didn't play the game yet so i'm assuming there's a lot of trolls). TB is not something you can just switch to in the middle of development, it has to be built around that from the start, including story etc.

it's a good game. Just a bit of warning to anyone who has not played it. The first 3 levels of the game are brutally difficult, even on normal difficulty. And keep in mind that if you run out of time on a timed quest, it is game over. And by game over, I mean you are starting over again from the beginning. I found that out the hard way.

That being said, I like it better than POE 2.

Man do not like the timed quest idea,want to play at my own pace,so dunno if I wanna purchase this game………….

Originally Posted by Darkant
Man do not like the timed quest idea,want to play at my own pace,so dunno if I wanna purchase this game………….

It's about time a game has some incentive to explore, though. Most of the times, ahem, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, insane portals to Hell are opening all around you and Daedric swarms are invading, meanwhile you're picking flowers and helping painters who are stuck in their magical portraits. The time limits are very lenient, I finished the first Chapter with 37 days remaining. It wasn't until I realized that every chapter was timed that I messed up. You have to realize that when an advisor says something is urgent, it really is in this game. And that's a breath of fresh air from open-worlds where you can just diddle around doing nothing while some supposed terrible onslaught is happening.

I absolutely have never cared for timed quests. Never have, likely never will.

I love this game. I'll put up with a lot of things that annoy me when I love something. Fin.

OK, that makes since thank you TheRealFluent,but still gonna wait till a few patches comes out before purchasing…..

My opinion - love the ruleset, hate the timed quests (they should include an option to turn off time limits) - hate the bugs, the bugs are absolutely killing my enjoyment of the game at this point in time since I'm stuck at Chapter 5 and not sure how much more damn time I can pass at this point in order to start the next game event. I have spent something like 4-5 hours in game time trying to pass time along and I'm not the only one getting this bug according to Steam forums; it's like they finished the first 1-3 chapters of the game and said, "Well, F it, we're done; we'll just get paying customers to beta test the rest."

Im still in first chapter and with exception of bug which caused I couldnt get rid of fatigue status even after rest (solved by re-loading) I didnt yet faced other problems. Which is coool as I really like the game. Reading about bugs in later chapters almost makes me afraid to get farther in the game.

By the way I finished quest where I cleansed corruption in the Elk temple and since then Im waiting for fog to disappear. While waiting I already finished several side-quests and rested many times so i hope this will not be bugged for me.

Originally Posted by ElderGnome
My opinion - love the ruleset, hate the timed quests (they should include an option to turn off time limits) - hate the bugs, the bugs are absolutely killing my enjoyment of the game at this point in time since I'm stuck at Chapter 5 and not sure how much more damn time I can pass at this point in order to start the next game event. I have spent something like 4-5 hours in game time trying to pass time along and I'm not the only one getting this bug according to Steam forums; it's like they finished the first 1-3 chapters of the game and said, "Well, F it, we're done; we'll just get paying customers to beta test the rest."

That sounds horrible . Has anyone actually played through the whole the game yet?

I'm taking as much time in chapter 1&2 while they patch the game. I have played 50 hours and I'm still in chapter 2. I knew chapters 4&5 were a buggy mess so I'm taking my time while they start patching the later game.

I'm playing pretty much the same way, just an hour or two a day and I'm still quite early in chapter two. I'm hoping a nice fat patch will land in the next week or two before I lumber into chapter three.

Hopefully the patches won't require a fresh game.

I would prefer not to have to start all over, but I would absolutely do it for this game. I would use every single shred of knowledge that I've accumulated up to now and make a dastardly protagonist, the sweetest of revenge!

My thinking is that if people love this game as much as they seem to, despite some clearly severe problems, imagine how good it might be if they fix it all up! Will probably be my winter game.

I just finished chapter 2 but ran into the second game-braking bug. The first one has been fixed but the second one is still around (troll trouble in kingdom despite the troll king being dead). So I put it aside most likely until their first big patch is out which is announced to be on Octobre 22nd.

That said the game itself is great. I wouldn't even mind starting over.

I tend to very much dislike rtwp combat. I have only ever completed kotor 1 and 2 in part due to the setting.

Would people recommend this as a game to someone who usually doesn't like the combat style for everything else the game offers?

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Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
And while I'm ranting, for the record I feel that's where Obsidian failed. PoE->PoE2 did not use the same ruleset.

Off topic but this part is simply wrong. I replayed PoE last year and and I am playing PoE2 now, and they are certainly using the same base rulesets. Some mechanics have changed yes, but mainly in the strategic department (per battle abilities), the system feels evolved, not changed.

On topic, stop praising Kingmaker until I actually have time to play it! I'm already juggling two large games and really want to finish them before I tackle this. I prefer the "great but needs patches" comments, please try to only post those.

Originally Posted by Andrew23
Im still in first chapter and with exception of bug which caused I couldnt get rid of fatigue status even after rest (solved by re-loading) I didnt yet faced other problems. Which is coool as I really like the game. Reading about bugs in later chapters almost makes me afraid to get farther in the game.

By the way I finished quest where I cleansed corruption in the Elk temple and since then Im waiting for fog to disappear. While waiting I already finished several side-quests and rested many times so i hope this will not be bugged for me.

Fog clearing is not related with waiting, you need to do the second main quest there for everything to progress.